News tagged with patent

(Tech Xplore)—Google-patent news this week is all about its patent application first filed back in 2013 calling for a motorized laptop hinge. That is where you have the luxury of opening and closing your little machine ...

(Tech Xplore)—Electric vehicles inspire a key question for a prospective buyer, and that is, what's the deal with battery life? Range? How far do I sit back in the car without leaning forward to fret over where and how ...

(Tech Xplore)—Not all wrists were created equal and the smartwatch that satisfies must not only work but feel comfortable. Otherwise, a "wearable" is a word that in and of itself does not fit. Apple thinks it has a solution ...

(Tech Xplore)—Apple's patent filing addresses an ultrasound-based force and touch sensor, according to AppleInsider. This could lead to a thinner, less obstructive 3-D Touch mechanism, said the report.

(Tech Xplore)—Big pillars may be a safety benefit for cars but what about driver visibility? "Since cars were first invented in 1886, the A-pillars have become wider, to help protect the cars in the instance of a crash. ...

(Tech Xplore)—As if Amazon did not garner enough of the recent headlines with its $13.7 bill move to rope in Whole Foods, there is now a patent headline to digest. With the patent news, the drums are getting louder to signal ...

(Tech Xplore)—The word small in digital gadgetry usually gets a bad reception. Small screen, small fonts, small display, are descriptives that usually draw frowns if not apologies. Samsung is another story.

(Tech Xplore)—Wirelessly charging your phone using your friend's phone? You have to hand it to Sony for bright ideas. James Milne, True Xiong and Charles McCoy are named as the inventors on a Sony patent application published ...

(Tech Xplore)—Heard all the rumors about the iPhone home button? Your future handset might have you groping for that home button that is no longer there, according to the rumors. And fingerprint scanners will go to work ...

Patent

A patent is a set of exclusive rights granted by a state to an inventor or his assignee for a limited period of time in exchange for a disclosure of an invention.

The procedure for granting patents, the requirements placed on the patentee and the extent of the exclusive rights vary widely between countries according to national laws and international agreements. Typically, however, a patent application must include one or more claims defining the invention which must be new, inventive, and useful or industrially applicable. In many countries, certain subject areas are excluded from patents, such as business methods and mental acts. The exclusive right granted to a patentee in most countries is the right to prevent others from making, using, selling, or distributing the patented invention without permission.

Under the World Trade Organization's (WTO) Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights, patents should be available in WTO member states for any inventions, in all fields of technology, and the term of protection available should be minimum twenty years. Different types of patents may have varying patent terms (i.e., durations).